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Chapter 83
🕑 Added 2025-10-03 16:38:11 +0000 UTCA/N: Planning on another double update but something unexpected came up, I'll prolly do it tomorrow.
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After that heroic spirit took her leave, the Professor insisted he be allowed to rest and took his leave. He seemed shaken, but I knew from his face that he wasn't about to answer any of my prodding. I supposed it was a testament to his will that he could just pick a fight with a hero of legend while being as pitifully weak as he was, then decide he was going to bed the moment it was over.
I, for one, was left so excited by the encounter that I barely got any sleep that night. All giddy like a school girl in love. The enemy had been a magus. Her mere existence exuded mystery so ancient it was suffocating, my brain almost fried itself from the input.
I wanted to fight her again. I wanted to strip her bare for all she was worth and add everything she had to my arsenal. I even wanted to look at her noble phantasm in the hopes that I could-
When I left my cabin the next morning, Gray was waiting outside. She led me to the Professor's cabin, and I found the man sitting at a table by the window, lit cigar in hand, and his brows furrowed in thought.
"No breakfast?" I broke the silence.
He hummed, "I've requested they bring it to us here. Apparently, they do have that kind of accommodation."
It'd be strange if they didn't.
I sat down across from him, crossing one leg over the other. My gaze caught the brass cage Gray carried around lying on the bedside table. The box's eyes were fixed on me, but it kept its mouth tightly shut. When I met Add's gaze, he quickly jumped the other way.
"So…"
"So…" The Professor smothered his cigar in the ashtray. "That servant. You must be curious too, right? About who she was, and her connection to me."
I snorted. "I noticed she's related to Iskander. The servant you summoned in the last Holy Grail War. I also managed to put together that she got summoned using the same catalyst you used back then. That's the treasure that got stolen, right?"
He raised a brow.
"Reines. I called Reines last night. She was a lot less kind with her words though. Something about 'useless fantasies and childish obsession' and that you 'really should grow up now'."
The Professor pursed his lips, annoyed, then let out a sigh.
"Well, I guess that is the gist of it. Back then, I had the honour of summoning the King of Conquerors, and he allowed me to swear loyalty to him. Hephaestion… was like a brother to that King, it's said that after they defeated Darius III, his mother Sisygambis even mistook him… or her… for King Iskander and knelt before him. This was at the Battle of Issus."
"Interesting story but, who ask-" I forced my mouth shut.
"And now, that subordinate of the King has gone rogue. I don't understand her intentions but, as someone who has sworn loyalty to that same person, I must find out why she is angry with the King. Why someone that close… wasn't present at the Ionioi Hetairoi back then."
I wanted to question why he even felt that he should be responsible for someone else. Especially when that someone else was a hero of legend. But, I only needed one look at him to understand. He was just that stubborn a man. He truly seemed to believe it was his duty.
Undeniably presumptuous to think he even had that right. Yet, admirable to no end.
"But, that's for me to do. Henry, you've fought a servant."
"I'm telling you, the summoning system weakens them a lot. The vessels it creates are flawed. I wouldn't discard the possibility that it's to make sure the 'master' can control them."
The Professor locked his hands together, his eyes narrowed, "My teacher. The previous Lord El-Melloi also noticed this. But, how did you? You were late-"
"Well, I happened to catch the ritual just as it finished on the first night."
"…The first night?"
"While we were asleep." Gray noted, visibly confused.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. I lowered my aviators and the Professor clenched his fists as Gray slid it aside. Our worries were unfounded. It was just breakfast. Gray gave a nod before carrying the tray over to us.
"Um…" She looked between us.
"Just drag a chair over, eat with us."
The Professor nodded in agreement before turning back to the conversation, "Anything else?"
"Hmm…" I stroked my chin as Gray sat down with us. "If I had to say, I guess it was interesting how-"
Another knock at the door.
This time, it was Trisha Fellows who greeted us. She stepped into the room with her hands behind her back, fixing her glasses. "Lord El-Melloi II, I have some information that I think has become prudent I share with you. It has something to do with the incident last night."
I chuckled, hoarding all the sausages and the bacon. When I noticed Gray eying them, I had to relent and share half of them with my adopted introvert.
"Mm, thank you." She bowed her little head.
Just when I was about to take my first bite though, Trisha dropped a bomb.
"I believe we've discussed how my eyes work before."
"Yes, the Mystic Eyes of Precognition. Visions of the future." The Professor nodded.
Needless to say, I forgot all about my breakfast. The prospect of seeing the future sounded somewhat dreary and boring, but listening to someone else with the ability was worth it.
Trisha cleared her throat, "Well, yes, until yesterday, my eyes stopped showing my future past the short stop we took. I assumed I would die, and made preparations to help the young miss accordingly."
"Why not change it?" Gray sputtered.
"I've learnt that trying to change the future myself often results in the opposite. But yes, that future never came true. It changed once your…" She nodded her head towards me. "Once your student joined us. Whoever had been attempting my murder seemed to decide against it when they noticed him. My vision also had no mention of him getting here."
Ah… so that was why she thanked me so cryptically yesterday.
"I can understand that. As you said, your eyes generate visions based on your conscious. That means they're limited to what you know, or your presence." The Professor nodded, steepling his fingers.
I couldn't help but feel that calling them predictions was more accurate. They simply showed her outcomes based on her own actions, what she knew at any given moment, or what affected only her. That wasn't really foresight at that point then, was it?
"But now, now my eyes show me something else. I think I know the identity of the perpetrator of the attack on you, and the danger he presents to everyone on board this train."
"Why tell us this? Shouldn't a magus be prioritizing gaining the most from that kind of info?" I asked rhetorically.
"I believe I owe you my life, Henry. Can you blame me for wanting to pay you back?" She smiled a thin smile, "We magus do tend to dislike owing others."
I nodded.
When she opened her mouth next, the train screeched. I grabbed Gray just in time before she fell over, and Add morphed into a scythe that she used to stop the Professor from being disturbed. The Professor himself, just lit another cigar, unfazed.
Goddammit he aura farmed a little too much at times.
I couldn't help but laugh.
The wheels heaved, and the train came to a screeching halt. Then, an announcement came over the speakers.
"The Rail Zeppelin has run into a Child of Einnashe. Please take measures accordingly for your own safety. The Staff are not responsible for any loss of life or wealth."
"What kind of shitty service is that?" I complained, waving a fist in the air.
"I must protect the lady-"
Waver held up a hand to stop Trisha, and breathed out a plume of dark smoke.
"Gray, bring the young lady here. See if you can find Caules while you're at it. Henry."
I grabbed a piece of bacon as I rose, "Yeah yeah fine, I'll go deal with it."
I would have done it even if he never asked. I had been dying to meet whatever Dead Apostle was headed our way from the second I noticed its presence.
"Miss Trisha. If you would be so kind."
I held out my chair for her. The blonde attendant confusedly sat down across from the Professor as I bit into my breakfast, stepping out of the Professor's car. At the end of the corridor, Karabo Frampton stood with his hands behind his back. He fell in beside me as I passed.
"I will lend you my strength, however little it is."
"Same here~!" Yvette ran up and jumped on my back to hang off it like a sloth, "But a Child of Einnashe is probably going to make me useless so don't count on me too much okay!?"
I deadpanned, "I've never counted on you for anything in my life."
When we reached the lobby, Hishiri Adashino was standing beside the door, one hand placed over the other. She greeted us with a smile.
"Woah, you're gonna help?"
The elegant woman in the flowery yukata shook her head from side to side. "That's what you're here for. I wouldn't want to deny you your fun."
"Just say you're useless."
She only giggled.
When we stepped out, the green meadows we'd crossed into were simply gone. Instead, a sudden snowstorm raged outside the train, making it hard to see anything but puffy white in every direction. Already, the snow had somehow piled up so much my entire knee disappeared into the second I took another step out.
"What the hell even is a Child of Einnashe?"
It was Karabo who ended up answering me.
"An offshoot of the Forest of Einnashe. One of the most powerful Dead Apostles in our record. The Demon of the Schwartzwald. Once it has fed sufficiently, the Forest drops seeds that eventually form into a Child of Einnashe. We are lucky not to encounter the parent but a child. Still, a fully-grown one."
Once my vision adjusted completely, I noticed jagged trees jutting from the snow, with thorny barks coiled around another unnaturally. There were no leaves. There was no life. A dead forest. Yet, it hadn't been there ten minutes ago.
Almost as if we'd stepped into another world-
"It will exhaust itself and die out. That is the fate of all that creature's Children. But, we must take care to live until that time comes."
Thick roots blew out of the snow-covered forest floor and lashed out for us. I moved my hand without thinking but my spell fell apart before it even finished forming. All the mana I poured into it was sucked away.
"It can absorb magical energy apparently."
Karabo jumped in front of me and sliced the roots apart with a Black Key. Admittedly, he moved insanely well for a man well enough into the years that he had not a single strand of coloured hair.
"A commonly observed trait."
Again, thick trees sprouted from the snow. But, instead of going for us, they coiled themselves around the train, wrapping it in their prickly embrace to hold it in place.
I couldn't help but grin.
"So I guess, beating this thing is an impossible task for a lone magus, yeah?"
"The affinity is terrible, yes." Karabo nodded.
I ran a hand through my hair as thick tendrils reached for me again.
"Careful-"
They fell apart, minced to perfection.
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Hope you enjoyed.
By the way, the Forest of Einnashe at full power is one of the few Dead Apostles that can outright delete Henry, by full power I refer to the Tsukihime Dead Apostle Ancestor version.
PLEASE, do comment so I can know I did well.
Comments
Bleap
Soooon
Alan
Thanks for the chapter, I will continue to patiently wait for Henry to summon his hero.
Alan
Bro is definitely a secret disciple of Piccolo.
Bob Smith
I love how much Waver aura farms, especially since his confidence is entirely based on how much he trusts his students' abilities
